What we’re reading (12/15)
“How Millions Of Jobless Americans Can Afford To Ditch Work” (CNN Business). “One of the more insidious myths this year was that young people didn't want to work because they were getting by just fine on government aid. People had too much money, went the narrative. Only trouble is, the numbers don't back it up. Instead, early retirement — whether forced by the pandemic or made possible otherwise — is playing a big role in America's evolving labor market.”
“The Treasury Has A Bond Bargain For You” (Wall Street Journal). “Invest in U.S. Treasury I Bonds. These bonds pay a fixed rate for the life of the bond, plus the annualized CPI inflation rate. With the interest compounded semiannually, these I Bonds will pay a total annualized interest rate of 7.12% through April 2022, well in excess of any other safe yield obtainable. You can never receive a negative real yield, and the combined interest rate can never be less than zero even if the price level declines.”
“NFTs Explained: Why People Are Spending Millions Of Dollars On JPEGs” (CNET). “When you see a headline or a tweet about some preposterous sum being spent on an NFT, it's easy to become bewildered over how absurd that purchase would be for you. What's easy to forget is that very expensive things are almost exclusively bought by very rich people -- and very rich people spend a lot on status symbols.”
“Burying The Laissez-Faire Zombie” (Prof. Luigi Zingalez, Project Syndicate). “The main divide…is not between the state and markets, but between procompetitive and anticompetitive rules. And within the universe of anticompetitive rules, the key distinction is between those that are justified by a higher principle and those that are not.”
“‘15 Minutes To Save The World’: A Terrifying VR Journey Into The Nuclear Bunker” (The Guardian). “In 1979, the world came within minutes of nuclear war because someone had left a training tape simulating a Russian attack in the early warning system monitors. In September 1983, Russian computers erroneously showed incoming US missiles. Armageddon was only averted because the duty officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, went against protocols and decided not to act on the alert because his gut told him it was a glitch.”
